the outcasts of poker flat short summary

Duchess hurts her ankle when a mountain lion spooks her horse, and Oakhurst, knowing that she cannot travel far in the increasing cold, searches for a cabin he vaguely remembers.

Oakhurst strikes out on his own, but the women and Jake, having no one else to turn to, follow him into the mountains. Cal is also cast out for having been seen with Ryker, although no one knows that she is married to him. The next day, the irate citizens decide to rid their town of bad influences and so banish gambler John Oakhurst, lady of the evening 'Duchess' Shipton and Jake Watterson, an old drunkard. While his cohorts are shot down in the street, Ryker gives the loot to his long-suffering wife Cal and orders her to stay in Poker Flat until he sends for her. As the others drink to forget their troubles, Oakhurst alone abstains and stands guard over the group-and, when Tom and Oakhurst keep watch the second night after Uncle Billy steals the mules, Oakhurst ends up keeping most of the watch as he explains he had “often been a week without sleep” (Paragraph 25).In the mid-1800s, in the gold-mining town of Poker Flat, sadistic criminal Ryker and his henchman rob the bank and kill two passersby. After Oakhurst initially pleads with the others to continue their travels to Sandy Bar, he “alone remained erect, leaning against a rock, calmly surveying them” (Paragraph 9).

While other outcasts show a certain strength in their open disdain for the committee’s hypocritical tyranny, Oakhurst demonstrates his strength in his emotional restraint. When the outcasts are dumped outside the town’s limits, Oakhurst is unreactive while the others express grievances: “Mother Shipton’s desire to cut somebody’s heart out, to the repeated statements of the Duchess that she would die in the road, and to the alarming oaths that seemed to be bumped out of Uncle Billy as he rode forward” (Paragraph 7).

Oakhurst’s equanimity emphasizes his strength as a gambling man.

The outcasts of poker flat short summary